Once the Permitting process has concluded, and relevant information has been passed to Compliance, the process of assessing compliance can begin.  In order to do so, an up to date Site Compliance Assessment Plan and a Sector Compliance Assessment Plan must both be in place – if not then additional or updated information must be requested before the assessment can proceed.

Once it has been confirmed that all required information is available, an Assessment Plan is produced, showing timescales, resources and activities required to conduct the assessment.  This is then reviewed by team members and revised until agreed.

The agreed assessment activities (using additional information) are then undertaken, including:

• Compliance audit

• Site inspection(s)

• Review of operational reports/data

• Procedure review

• Monitoring

Once complete, the findings are collated and agreed by team members.  A panel then reviews the findings against legal requirements and determines the appropriate response.  Only three outcomes are possible:

•  Compliant response

• At risk of non-compliance response

• Non-compliant response

For each response a series of further steps must be taken (e.g. to produce letters, reports and to notify relevant parties). 

Once completed, a Site Report is always produced and any required further actions identified and agreed: 

Where appropriate this may initiate a review of compliance at site level, followed by (where appropriate) a programme level review. 

Furthermore findings may also sometimes need to be presented at a national process level.